Through the editions.. How did you start?

[angelwing]

Reading all this makes me feel a bit old, haha. I won't say how long I've been playing with toy soldiers (longer than many hive members have been alive no doubt), but GW wise I was introduced to fantasy and 40k around 1990. I actually had the money to buy my own stuff (rather than just play with friends armies) in 1994 when I bought the 4th ed fantasy boxset and started a skaven army. I picked up tyranids in 1995 and played in the first GW global campaign Battle of Ichar 4. I was a GW redshirt at the time and could afford to buy the metal models at a cheap price for a 'full' tyranid army. Other people only ran with tyrants, carnifex and plastic stealers and termagants. Buying hordes of metal hormies, gargoyles and warriors was very expensive for regular players. I wanted to play the army 'properly' with all the toys and so my fate was sealed, my soul belongs to the hive mind.
I've played in all the GW 40k global campaigns (with a mix of armies, competed in the GW global tank battle (an attempt to use as many tanks across the world at the same time) and still have the special transfers they gave out on my tanks that took part, and I bought the big toys to the GW Global Swarming event - an all day game tyranids versus everyone else. I managed to win our table at the store that day.
My other tyranid claims to fame - I suggested way back in 3rd ed that a flying hive tyrant with twin devourers would be a useful unit. I got laughed off the then official GW forums for it. I wonder who's laughing now... and I bought the very last tyranid spore chimney from forgeworld. I clicked 'put in basket' and the listing went 'out of stock'. The model arrived with little bits of mold stuck in it, so I presume the molds had failed and its never been back in stock since!

[cypheon]

Back in 96 a friend brough one of their product catalogues into school. It had every single model made by GW at the time (including individual bits) and their part numbers, with an order form in the back.

I spent three days examining everything in it and not knowing the rules, ordered a genestealer patriarch, tyranid warrior with venom cannon, and a hive tyrant, then a lot of random heads from both 40k and fantasy to scatter on their bases (my friend said they would look cooler with "trophies" at their feet). I had thought about ordering the guys who looked like "armored elephant aliens" (chaos terminators) for the visuals but my friend told me i should stick to collecting one faction until i had a rulebook in hand.

Once they arrived my brother looked through the book and ordered his first leman russ tank, which led to both our funniest, and most horrifying, assembly. We did not know any better and thought elmers school glue would be fine for holding tbe plastic, rather than "waste" expensive super glue on so many lightweight pieces. Once it was finished, dried, and ready to prime my brother picked it up by the sides and made it halfway up the stairs before the hull slipped down and shattered on the edge of a step.

I stayed up half the night helping him scrape glue off the parts so we could redo it with superglue...

[Hive Bahamut]

Fantastic stories so far. I get the feeling that most of us could have used just a little more guidance, but we all stumbled to the right place.

I can fully appreciate how others have stories of horrid assembly and ways to cheat the system. The glue incident reminds me of when I got my plastic Gargoyles.

"Let's glue ALL these stupid starfish to those flying bases. Future me is going to love this idea. Transit you say? Why of course they fit in ANY sort of case. Oh wait.. Turns out past me was an (please do not swear)."

Also, by virtue of "it can only get better," I think held many of us here, if not for one of the best aesthetic armies out there. Why hello there you sexy clawed nightmare. How did you get out of your cage? Possibly the only army worse than Lego to step on.

[Overread]

Nov 14, 2018 18:00:31 GMT Hive Bahamut said:

Why hello there you sexy clawed nightmare. How did you get out of your cage? Possibly the only army worse than Lego to step on.

Stepping on lego is just physical pain; stepping on models is a physical pain, backed up with an economic pain (that was expensive) and an emotional one (I spent hours cleaning, building, painting you!)

[Hive Bahamut]

On the note of how addictive it can be.. Just realized we kind of pushed one into it.

Showed up to his house with a Tau Battleforce box and codex. "You wanted to play Tau right?"

I now see this was akin to injecting heroine for someone the first time.

He now plays Necrons almost exclusively, and donated the Kroot to me so I can take Shadowsun if I ever feel like it. (She was my first step into 40k, even painted it up and gave it a shimmery effect, and painted the Fusion Green, prior to knowing anything.)

Painting Tyranids sucks. Gouge my eyes out and pour bleach in, sounds more tempting than another batch of Gaunts. Mind you, finally about 75-85% done. Just that final push before GSC comes out and I dropkick Nids into benchwarmers where they belong

[myself]

My story is very similar to that of many others on here.
In the late 80's/early 90's I was totally unaware of GW, and much into board games, so Hero Quest brought me to Space Crusade (I am more of a sci-fi guy) and fell in love with the concept of it.
In the early 90's I was then given Blood Bowl as a present, and in the box there was the GW brochure with the current product line. I could see WH40K, but could not understand what it was (Rogue Trader), as I only had eyes for board games, so Space Crusade led me to Space Hulk (one of my fondest mamories) and then, being in love with the Genestealers, Tyranid Attack ensued, which sealed my love for Tyranids and their lore.
At that point (1993) I had dozens of genestealers plus several hybrids and a few warriors, in addition to lots of terminators and scouts, the 2nd edition box had come out and I saw at a local store an announcement by someone selling for peanuts the codex, plus another bucket of genestealers, and then gaunts of all forms and a screamer killer. Thus started my army, although I did not have too many people to play with (a friend had the BRB, another one had the expansion, Dark Millennium, the year after), and I had started a Dark Angels Army with all my Space marine leftovers. In total we had 4 armies (Tyranids, Eldar, Ultramarines and Dark Angels).
What made it really difficult back then was that, as teens, we would not have the money to keep up with the hobby, in addition, being in a non English speaking country, only few of my age would bother to play a game that was only available in English, and really hard to get hold of (GW would only start having official dealers in continental Europe several years later, especially far away from major cities).
The cahnces to play became very thin by the time 3rd ed hit the stores, so I just put everything aside, being busy elsewhere, but catching up every now and again with WD, websites, and ever lurking this forum (once a Tyranid, always a Tyranid).
I got back into the hobby quite shyly with the release of the 6th edition, and by the 7th it was full on again, but with more money available, and more people to play and discuss with.

Just one anecdote regarding a recent experience: a few months ago I was playing a nice lad at my local club (me Tyranids, him Primaris SM) when one of my genestealers fell on its side (25mm base, of course). As I picked it up, I noticed that it was one of my oldest models, because back then I used to paint the date of completion under the base. I showed it to him, and he read the date, gasped and with a smile told me: "Wow, I was born 9 days after".
I didn't feel old, because I am already aware that I am! I actaully felt really happy, because that was the realisation that the hobby is still going strong, with new generations getting into it.

[blucord]

I started at the tail end of 6, people in my gaming group told me that no one played nids because they suck, I immediately loved the look and bought fully into them. 7th edition was AMAZING for my flying circus list I made and went unopposed. And that point I started getting into Tau, space wolves, and eldar. A friend of mind was sell a 2000 pt Battleforged Necromunda army fully painted for dirt cheap so I bought that army for my brother to play. Loved every game in 7, 8th edition hit and the rework of the rules and the simplified version of the game, especially the introduction to cp was the facelift it need to kickstart my local gaming group. Love 40k my first table top game and it gave me a hobby(painting and modeling) and I hold close to my heart. I even make a nice chunk of change painting models for people.

[Davor]

For me it all started with BattleTech. I thought I would branch out and saw this Rouge Trader book. Read through it, and I attracted to Tyranids. So for me, Tyranids are always individuals, or that is how I read it back then. Since nobody played games because it was for nerds/geeks I never got into Rouge Trader since I couldn't buy minis and stopped playing BattleTech.

I guess it was around Lord of the Rings The Two Towers when the movie came out. I bought the third edition box set and LotR Two Towers box set but life got in the way and never touched the boxes.

Then fourth edition came around with Battle for Macgragge. That is when I finally got into 40K. While my Tyranids are different now and no longer individuals I always stuck with them. Been in the hobby on and off for years but never left Nids or my Dark Angels. Slowly coming back to it now with Genestealer Cults.

[Inquisitor Stingray]

I think I came across some Warhammer models being used for a D&D-session in school, during recess. That was maybe 16 years ago. I bought a whole bunch of Lizardmen and collected Fantasy for three or four years. Received the rulebook as a birthday present and did my best at comprehending the rules. However, being only 10 or 11 years old and non-native English speaker, I found the whole thing really daunting and overwhelming. Made up my own terrible rules instead, which basically turned Warhammer Fantasy into a terrible version of Heroes 3.

I came into possession of the Games Workshop 2005 catalogue at some point. I used to peer through it, again and again, dreaming of all those wonderful models that I obviously could not afford at the time (still can't, hah!). As a youngster, I didn't really "get" the over-the-top aesthetic of 40K to begin with. I thought it really strange that Orks were fighting in space, with guns and all. However, in that catalogue I was absolutely infatuated by pictures of Tyranids. Namely the Hive Tyrant and the Carnifex. I still kind of miss the days when those two were considered the big bad monsters.

Curiously, I cannot for the life of me remember why I decided on giving 40K a shot, years after having lost interest in Fantasy. But I clearly recall googling various things related to Tyranids - and ending up on this very website. One december, 2008 it was, there was this silly thread about Christmas-themed carols. With just a tiny bit more money in my pocket, I picked up a Battleforce (the good one, with an actual Carnifex in it!) during april of 2009 - and I received another for my birthday. And that was it.

I spend ten years with this website now. It's been a part of my life for so long. When I created this account I was barely a teenager and now I feel so ooooooold. As the years have gone by, it's probably a relatively small amount of time that I have actually spent modelling, painting, and playing with my miniatures. But that's the thing. Even at an early age, I kind of realized how all-encompassing (devouring?) this hobby really is. It's not just applying paint, huffing glue or rolling dice. It's thinking about Tyranids when you see a documentary about insects; pondering new army lists (even if you wont be playing for weeks) while in the shower; digging up an old Carnifex to impress your nephew.

And being part of the Tyranid Hive, of course.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

I started about three months into 8th. Looking back on it, it was inevitable that I was going to get into a wargame some day. I painted minis growing up and am an avid board gamer. 40k is a mix of the two.

My friend convinced me to give it a try and threw together two lists (guard vs orks with me playing orks). After that first game I was hooked.

I was drawn to the tyranid ascetic as they are the closest thing to giant fantasy monsters. They also looked like Zerg which was a big plus. I managed to pick up quite a few nids very quickly through some great second hand deals. Been slowly painting up since then. I found the hive while searching for biovore conversions, lurked for a while, then joined. Glad to be a member of the hive for sure!